


Late-Night Crises Are a Major Inconvenience

by PriorityNaps



Series: SNIPPETS [1]
Category: Gintama
Genre: College AU, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Romance, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 02:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19286680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PriorityNaps/pseuds/PriorityNaps
Summary: (Gintoki/Hijikata)Hijikata just wants to unwind before going to bed.





	Late-Night Crises Are a Major Inconvenience

**Author's Note:**

> Now that my school's up, I'm probably going to be posting often. I think. 
> 
> Anyway, I'm starting a series! It's going to consist of a bunch of different AUs, though most of them are going to be College/University/High School since I like writing about Gin&Toshi when they're younger. Please note that they're all standalone.
> 
> I am NOT trying to copy anyone by making this series. I've had this idea for a while now and don't want anyone thinking I was inspired by them or whatnot. 
> 
> On a completely unrelated note, I was debating for a LONG time over the name of this series thanks to a certain user who goes by 'beneathameteorshower'. [You know what I mean, hon.] If anyone's curious, just ask.

Hijikata couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept before 2 in the morning. He’d been warned by older friends of the sudden changes in his sleep schedule but didn’t expect it to be  _this_ bad. Some days he’d be running on caffeine alone, others he’d manage to snag a couple hours of shuteye, but never had he been able to get the full 8 hours a college student like him needed.

So when he closes his textbook and gives himself a good stretch one unsuspecting Tuesday, he’s utterly bewildered to see it’s not past one in the morning yet. His first instinct is to panic. Seriously, who wouldn’t in such circumstances?

He scrambles for his phone on the nightstand, groaning when he realizes he forgot to hook it on the charger before sitting down roughly four hours ago, and scrolls through his afterschool checklist.

He wishes he could say he’s relieved to find everything done in the list, but there’s a nagging feeling in his gut telling him something’s off. He doesn’t have this feeling often, and past experience told him he has a very sensible gut.

He goes over the previous day in his head. He’d woken up around half an hour late, skipped his morning shower, had a piece of toast slathered with mayo for breakfast (and lunch), went through all his classes without falling asleep for more than nine minutes, and―

He snaps his fingers when it hits him. His Economics teacher had been absent! That man was so brutal when it came to take-home assignments to the point where his exams were several times easier and quicker to do. His class was the main reason several students taking it had stationed coffee machines in random places on campus sometime last month.

Apparently, Sensei’s sister was getting married and he had to travel by flight to make it to her wedding. Hijikata, being the distracted workaholic he was, had completely forgotten. Today was the first day of Economics class with a substitute teacher. He’d used the hour and a half to catch up on some sleep the second he saw a young woman in glasses walk through the door instead of his teacher lugging a briefcase.

Hijikata leans back until he makes contact with the navy-painted walls of his and Gintoki’s dorm room. He’s not even tired, but he might as well get ready for bed. His roommate is out, having yelled something about Shinsuke being stuck in the shower or whatever as he flew out the door. The idiot had forgotten his phone, though, and Hijikata didn’t bother telling him. It had gone off a couple times in the past hour and he’d considered giving Katsura a call in case Gintoki hadn’t realized he was missing his phone, but decided not to.

His own phone dings for the first time since he’d sat down and he ignores it. Usually, it’s Kondo giving him an update on that Shimura girl’s morning/afterschool/night routine or Sougo sending death threats. Gintoki messages him too, but there’s no way it’s him since _someone_ left their phone on the corner of the desk before leaving. Maybe it’s one of Gintoki’s friends. Hijikata has their numbers handy in his contacts list, though he doesn’t chat with them often. Were any of them still awake?

Fuck it, he’ll see who it is.

It’s Kondo, just as he’d first suspected. Hijikata’s got a setting on his phone where he’s allowed to keep the contents of the message hidden until he unlocks it― courtesy of a certain brat who can’t mind his own business― so he doesn’t know what Kondo’s said to him. He can’t care less, but he does feel a twang of guilt for ignoring his best friend.

He shuffles until he’s off the bed, then plugs his phone. The gut feeling’s not gone yet, but there’s nothing he can really do about it. Maybe it's trying to tell him to check Gintoki's messages.

He gives himself another good stretch, bending until his back cracks, and yawns. His ponytail’s all messed up and he doesn’t have it in him to fix it, so he just pulls at the hair tie until it all comes loose.

He heads over to the small closet he and Gintoki share and throws open the bifold doors. Some pairs of shorts come tumbling out from Gintoki’s side as well as a magazine that Hijikata isn’t planning on picking up anytime soon. He rummages through his own neatly folded stacks and carefully tugs out some light grey shorts and a graphic tee. He carries them with him to the bathroom and hangs them on the hooks behind the door.

He turns on the shower faucet and throws off his clothes, then steps in. The temperature’s fine, he isn’t picky about taking cold or hot showers, unlike Gintoki. He’s in there for no more than twenty minutes, though most of the time he just stands under the water with his eyes closed. He hears something suspiciously similar to an anime’s theme song (he can’t remember the name of it) more than once but waves it off each time.

Once he’s done toweling himself dry, he pulls on his so-called pajamas. He wears something different to bed every night and it's always a shirt and shorts he's selected at random, _if_ he has enough time for sleep, that is.

He brushes his teeth and washes up. By the time he steps out the bathroom with his dirty clothes in hand and a towel around his neck, it’s half past one. He’s a little drowsy now and is grateful for that; it’d make it all the more easier for him to fall asleep.

The dirty clothes go in the laundry hamper by the bathroom door. He towels his hair one last time before stepping back into the bathroom and hanging the damp towel to dry. He doesn’t bother running a comb through his locks out of sheer laziness. He’s not planning on going to sleep with his hair wet, though, so he decides to stay up just a little longer to let it air-dry.

What’s there to do? He’s got all his homework done, that essay he’d written was submitted last night, and there’s no test or quiz coming up this week. Gintoki’s still not back, either. Hijikata wishes he knows what the bastard’s up to, he can never tell when it comes to him and his three psycho friends. There was this one time Gintoki had climbed in through the window covered in twigs and leaves, grumbling about 'stupid Zura' and having to pick his perm for insects or dirt. If Hijikata recalls properly, that happened last week.

The ceiling fan is on, so Hijikata sits directly under it in the middle of the room. The days have definitely grown warmer, so he and Gintoki just leave it on to keep the room cool.

An idea pops into Hijikata’s head. He crawls over to his nightstand, snags his phone, and digs through the top drawer until he’s found a pair of headphones. There’s a bunch of knots in one of the wires connecting to the earbud but other than that it’s fine. He crawls back to his spot and hooks them to his phone, then sticks both earbuds in. He’s not craving something particular at the moment, so he shuffles the playlist and lets it choose whatever it wants.

He rocks back and forth ever so slightly to the quiet hum in his ears. It’s not a song with a ton of instruments or a hip-hop kind of beat, so it helps him relax. Before he knows it, he’s on his back with his arms folded behind his head and one knee propped up on the other. The bud in his left ear almost falls out and he moves to push it in properly, and that’s when he hears the telltale sound of someone running down the hallway outside. They’re definitely approaching his room, he can tell since they’re getting louder, but it’s probably not Gintoki. The guy may be an idiot, but he’s not dumb enough to―

The door bursts open to reveal a very disheveled Gintoki. Hijikata scrambles to sit up and shut off the music, yanking the buds out of his ears. His heart’s racing. Is this what he gets for relaxing?

“Whaddaya want, asshole?!”

Gintoki’s got his hands on his knees and he’s breathing like he’s run all seven flights to go from Shinsuke’s room to his own. There’s something sticking out of his pocket and he pulls it out once he’s caught his breath and shut the door. It’s a very mangled piece of paper that looks suspiciously like the worksheet Hijikata was filling out not too long ago.

“Why weren’t you answering my phone?!”

What kind of dumbass asked why his roommate didn’t answer his phone?

“Because...it’s not mine? What the hell makes you think I’d look through your messages, huh?”

Gintoki fists his hair, not caring that the worksheet he was holding is now fluttering to the floor.

“You― I was trying to contact you! I know you don’t give your own phone a second glance when you’re doing your work so I thought you might get the hint with― oh, forget it. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

Hijikata sits there dumbly, unsure of whether to answer that question or not. When was Gintoki trying to contact him? Through those two messages from before?

_Wait…_

Hijikata nearly facepalms. That stupid anime theme song he heard in the shower wasn’t his imagination, it was the idiot’s ringtone. 

“Anyway, this―” Gintoki plucks the worksheet off the floor and dangles it in Hijikata’s face, “―is that dumb duck’s doing. I kept telling Zura to put her away in that cage by his bed but he kept rambling something about Eli needing fresh air. Who is he kidding, honestly, thinking his and Shinsuke’s room has got fresh air.”

Hijikata doesn’t want to know what was going on in the room Katsura shared with Shinsuke while Gintoki was there. Wasn’t Shinsuke stuck in the shower or some shit? How did Elizabeth have any part in that?

“What’s your point?”

Gintoki sighs and tosses the paper behind him.

“I need yours.”

“My what?”

“Dumbass, your homework! I can’t give  _that_ to Sensei, can I?” He gestures at the torn worksheet. “You can’t even read anything I’ve written down on it, I’m gonna need to copy yours on a separate sheet.”

By now, Hijikata has gotten up from his spot in the middle of the room. He shoves his headphones back in the drawer and places his phone on the nightstand, then puts a hand on his hip when he turns back to Gintoki.

“And what makes you think I’ll just hand it over?”

Gintoki’s jaw goes slack.

“Are… are you _kidding_ me?! I just told you my own was half-eaten by Elizabeth, what else do you need?”

“You’re just being lazy. Put the worksheet back together and copy that.”

Gintoki huffs.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“That I am, but not as much as you. Now, shoo, I’m goin’ to bed.”

Hijikata turns his back to Gintoki again to plug his phone. He unlocks it and opens the messages app to check Kondo’s text for the hell of it. The guy’s definitely asleep now, so he’ll reply sometime in the morning.

_TOSHI! Otae-chan fogot to put on her miosturizing craem before going to bed! How am I supopsed to tel lher? I don,t want my beloevd to wake the nxet mronig with dr y skin!_

The sheer amount of typos alone is enough to tell him how desperate Kondo is. Exclamation marks are no surprise, though. What’s surprising is that he’s used only two. In four sentences.

Well, he takes back believing his friend is asleep. Kondo’s probably still sitting in that tree outside Otae’s dorm building, clutching his phone with both hands and awaiting Hijikata’s reply. Okay, now he feels bad. He should say something before Kondo hurls himself through Otae’s window and shakes her awake. Or before he tries putting that moisturizer on her himself.

He probes his brain for some friendly advice, preferably _not_ anything along the lines of ‘go home, it’s 2 in the fucking morning’, but that leaves his options very limited. Seriously, what _can_ he say to Kondo? Maybe tell him to climb down from the tree he’s sitting in, for starters.

He’s about to do it, thumbs hovering above the keyboard, when he feels warm air curl at his left ear and he nearly jumps out of his skin. His shoulders pinch up and that’s all he gets past before Gintoki’s arm wraps firmly around his midsection. The other one moves to pluck the phone out of Hijikata’s hands and place them on the nightstand, then it, too, wraps around his waist.

His breath gets stuck in his throat, and he can’t tell if it’s because of the tickle of Gintoki’s perm against his ear, the trail of kisses being made down the side of his neck after his hair is pushed away, or the almost-bruising grip Gintoki has on him. He settles for all three, though he makes no move to shove his roommate off him.

His shirt’s pulled aside to reveal his shoulder and Gintoki turns his kisses into bite marks and sucks at the skin, but he’s careful to keep them where they can’t be seen. Hijikata could feel himself relaxing into Gintoki’s touch, slouching his shoulders a bit and leaning back so he feels that chiseled abdomen and firm chest.

He doesn’t realize when, but his hand buries itself in Gintoki’s perm and pulls until the other gets the hint and lifts his head up. Their lips meet in a slow, unhurried kiss, tongues swirling together, and they only part when Gintoki turns Hijikata around and pushes at him until his back meets the mattress. He’s quick to climb on top once Hijikata’s shifted properly so that his head is on the pillow, and they’re kissing again. It’s definitely not as gentle as earlier; there’s a bite here and there, and they both know their lips are going to be bruised by the time they’re done.

Hijikata catches himself chasing Gintoki’s mouth when the other lets up but a finger is pressed against his lips.

“Lemme copy your paper.”

Hijikata doesn’t have it in him to smack Gintoki for tricking him, but it’s his own fault too. He was too caught up in the moment to realize he was playing right into the bastard's hands. 

His mind’s too clouded for him to care now, though. He whispers a hoarse ‘ _fine_ ’ before placing his palms on either side of Gintoki’s face and pulling him back down.

Despite his Economics teacher being absent that day, Hijikata didn’t get to sleep before two that night. 

He’s definitely not complaining.

**Author's Note:**

> So.
> 
> Gintama's over.
> 
> I've known the show for less than a year but I'm utterly devastated.


End file.
